Bad news for lovers of Sriracha sauce. A Los Angeles County court has ordered the maker of the iconic chili sauce to partially cease operations until it can get the allegedly eye-watering, heartburn-inducing odors its plant produces under control. The city of Irwindale sued Huy Fong Foods after residents living near a major Sriracha plant complained that spicy smells were giving them runny noses, headaches, and in one case, more nosebleeds.

Huy Fong says that its own workers have never complained about being close to the production of the sauce, made from jalapeño peppers, vinegar, sugar, salt and garlic. As we reported in October when the lawsuit was first filed, the move could pose a problem for supplies of Sriracha.

Because Huy Fong only uses fresh chilies that need to be processed within a day of being picked, the company processes all of the over 100 million plus pounds of chilies it uses during a two to three month window in the fall, as the chilies ripen. A partial shutdown of its 665,000-square-foot (about 61,780 square meters) plant in Irwindale right now could cripple production for the year ahead, and force Huy Fong to leave chilies to rot.

The company already struggles to meet global demand for its increasingly popular sauce. The Irwindale plant was opened to supplement production from another plant about half its size a few miles away. The company planned to eventually move all production to Irwindale.

The case may still go to trial but city officials say they hope the company and Irwindale can resolve the issue out of court. If the case isn’t resolved soon and Sriracha supplies are affected, David Tran, founder of Huy Fong who says he’s never raised the wholesale price for the sauce in over 30 years of its making, might have to change his mind about that.

all food as i know will now fail

RIP

Mon Dec 09, 2013 11:00 pm

T-Wrexp00ny tang

Joined: 30 Jun 2002
Posts: 6416
Location: Detroit, Michigan

Stock up! It might be a year before it's back on the shelves..

This is worse than the 4 Loko shutdown.

Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:58 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

Cock sauce got cock blocked.

Tue Dec 10, 2013 8:00 am

anomalyLoserface

Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 2648
Location: DFW, TX

Sriracha is for the weak stomached pansies.
Go get some real chilisauce, girls.

Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:26 pm

al(phonic)

Joined: 12 May 2005
Posts: 783
Location: maine

a hipster ketchup shortage? my town is going to implode

Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:28 pm

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

When did Sriracha become a hipster product? More like poor college student staple, because nothing makes Ramen more palatable. Plus, I don't think most hipsters have the stomach for it. It's not that bad, as anomaly indicated, but it's spicier than most folks like.

Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:32 pm

ecapataz

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 1960
Location: Bonn, Germany

anomaly wrote: Sriracha is for the weak stomached pansies.
Go get some real chilisauce, girls.

Agreed. Nobody in Asia uses it either.

Tue Dec 10, 2013 5:50 pm

NeuroA champion of Kurtis SP

Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 7909

tell us some sauces , post pics too if possible

Tue Dec 10, 2013 10:23 pm

anomalyLoserface

Joined: 22 May 2008
Posts: 2648
Location: DFW, TX

Go to any Pho house and find that red oily sauce w/ the red pepper deathflakes floating around in it. That packs a pretty mean punch to the gut

Last edited by anomaly on Wed Dec 11, 2013 3:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

Wed Dec 11, 2013 2:33 am

Captiv8

Joined: 25 Aug 2006
Posts: 8546
Location: Third Coast

About the most I can do with heat is telling the waiter at a thai restaurant I'd like my food medium spicy. Even then I usually end up sweating and drinking a gallon of water. And the fiery asshole the next day is not worth it. Props to those that can handle the super hot stuff, but I prefer enjoying my meal. Oh, and I usually get the hiccups when something is too spicy, and that's the worst.

Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:36 am

Limbs

Joined: 04 Feb 2011
Posts: 1045

Guh I fucking hate the hiccups. I usually do hot with Indian food tho and it treats me fine. I love cayenne.

there's a teppanyaki restaurant down the street.
and last time my wife and i were there, i got a broccoli, beef and jalapeno stir fry with a couple spoons of that shit.....

and whooooo.. it's been weeks and i'm still breathing great thru my nose.
fuck a neti-pot. eat super spicy food.

Wed Dec 11, 2013 8:11 pm

DeadAwake

Joined: 17 Feb 2007
Posts: 596
Location: Aus.

I liked their sweet chilli sauce. I get the feeling sweet chilli sauce isnt very good for you, health-wise though.

I had a habanero chilli in one of my usual stir fry dinners. They kick you in the face but its worth it. Once every couple months though.

Fri Dec 13, 2013 2:01 am

tommi teardrop

Joined: 12 Apr 2007
Posts: 2222
Location: Las Vegas

Sriracha has become a standard condiment in my part of the country. People put it on almost everything. I heard a story about the company on NPR and it was pretty interesting. It said they've never advertised because they cannot produce enough product to keep up with any increase in demand.

I'm not a huge fan of chili myself, but everyone else I know uses it almost as often as they use salt and pepper.